It was in the midafternoon, a bright summer light shining through the windows illuminating the normally depressing room. The walls were a terrible greenish color that had faded over the years of neglect. The fabric of the uncomfortable sofa and arm chair was faded and looked as though someone had purposely stained it. The floor was uneven; a few pieces of wood were warped. The bookshelves that lined half the walls were full of books on dark magic and pure blood propaganda. A dusty, gaudy chandelier swung back and forth as a ruckus from another floor disturbed it. The person on the couch looked up and smiled tightly and seemed like he wanted to join them but the weight on his lap destroyed his temporary happiness.

He reached forward to touch the faces of the pair captured forever in a small frame. The woman constantly being pulled into the man's arm, a smile on both their faces before she reached up to kiss the man's cheek before he turned his head so she kissed his lips. The woman would spin out and it would start all over again.

"I thought I might find you here Harry," Remus said from the doorway. His hands were stuffed in his pockets as he leaned against the door frame.

Harry jumped at the voice of his former Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. "Pro—I mean Remus. When did you get here?" He questioned. Remus had been there at the beginning of summer but had come and gone in the more recent weeks.

"I wanted to stop by to see you. I didn't know if you knew the significance of today…"

Harry's joy at seeing the man who had been his parents' best friend as well as a friend of his own dissipated at the mention. He looked back at the photo album that was open to James's and Lily's wedding photos.

"It's their anniversary." He said sadly.

Remus walked into the room and sat adjacent to Harry. His eyes were filled with pain as he recalled his two fallen friends, "Can I take a look?" He motioned towards the album.

Harry acquiesced Remus's request and handed over the book. The corners of Remus's mouth turned up marginally when he saw the beaming faces in the pictures. He shook his head and began flipping through the pages. "When Hagrid owled me asking for pictures, I immediately sent all the ones I still had. You deserved to have them more than I did. I only wish I had more to give. Elyse…Lucky was fond of photography and we were her favorite subjects. I don't know what happened to them."

"Sissy took them," Sirius said from the doorway, startling both his friend and godson. "She put them somewhere safe. I haven't been able to find them. Though I heard that Moody gave you something…?"

Harry nodded and reached into his pocket to pull out an old faded picture. There were creases in it but that didn't age the people in the photo. Remus took the photo while Sirius snatched up the photo album. His eyes immediately fixated on the first photo on the page. Harry knew the picture well. It was a copy of the official Quidditch portrait each team did every year. His stood in the back row, his captain's badge proudly displayed on his chest. Next to him was a girl with her black hair pulled back, looking almost identical to the pictures he had seen of Sirius when he was the same age; his twin, Ursula. She showed up often in the album. In front of her, another teen that showed up often in his father's life. His hair was red, almost redder than the Weasleys. One of his hands was resting on top of Ursula's hand which was on his shoulder. In front of him was another ginger but she couldn't have been related to him; they looked too different. Again, he had seen her in enough pictures to know that all three of them were his father's friends.

Sirius stared at the picture, his finger reaching out to touch it before he quickly pulled it back. The pain of simply looking at their faces, the faces of the people who meant the most to him, was too much for him, seeing them all happy and smiling and proud. Harry couldn't tell if it was helping or hurting him.

"Sirius, what is it?" Remus asked.

"This is," Sirius said, his voice was steady but thick with emotion, "the first time I've seen their faces in twelve years."

Remus placed a hand on his shoulder, offering silence comfort and support. Anger rushed through Harry's veins as he watched his devastated Godfather look through pictures of the faces that haunted his dreams and nightmares. Harry couldn't imagine losing Hermione or Ron…to lose so many and to never get to grieve their deaths…

"Who are they?" Harry asked. "I know the Dad's friends but who are the other three?"

Sirius motioned Harry to scoot over on the sofa towards him. Sirius started out with the middle row, "The two beaters are Reginald Jackson Hiram King, we called him RJ or Jack, and Christopher Wood. They were two years behind us so they never spent much time with all of us outside of the pitch."

"Wood?"

Remus nodded, "He's Oliver's uncle. His older brother Sean was Oliver's dad. He was killed the summer before this picture was taken."

"I never knew that," Harry said, thinking back to his former captain. He had never known that Oliver grew up without his father.

Sirius snorted, "Sean was a beast of a keeper. Quidditch skills must be genetic."

"Who's the other chaser besides Dad and Ursula?"

"That's Moira McGonagall. She spent a lot of time with Ursula. She's still alive I think," Sirius said, turning to Remus for confirmation.

Remus's face turned grave, "In the months after Voldemort being defeated, some Death Eaters went rouge. Moira was killed a week before Christmas." A thought occurred to him and he turned to Sirius in confusion. "Wait, Sirius, I thought you had pictures up in your room here? At least, that's what you always told us." Remus accused.

"I do. I haven't been in there since I've been back."

Remus shook his head, "Then where have you been sleeping?"

Flipping over another page, Sirius muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'sofa' but Harry wasn't sure.

"Harry, why don't you go find Lysie? She's been dying to talk to you since she got here." Remus suggested gently, though it was more a command than a request.

Though he desperately wanted to ask questions about his parents and the other people in the photographs, he begrudgingly nodded and left the room, leaving the pair alone.

Remus looked at the Order picture, amazed at how young they all looked. James, Sirius, Lily, Albus, Flitwick, Ursula…All of them looked so vastly different than he remembered or knew them now. "Can you believe how naïve we were back then?" Remus asked as he waved the picture in Sirius's direction.

Sirius snorted back a laugh at a memory, "Did we ever tell you about what happened at the first meeting we had with the Order in Sixth year?"

Though he had been successfully breathing for thirty-five years, his body suddenly forgot how to perform that basic function as he started choking on his saliva, "What?! You joined the Order of the Phoenix in Sixth year?" He demanded.

Sirius shrugged, "Not joined, per say. More of we got some extra training from some Albus and some Order members. Damn, the first day was interesting…Lots of yelling. And cursing of both the verbal and magical kind."

"What happened?" Remus inquired.

Sirius chuckled, "You see, James, Sissy, and I got some notes from Albus that said that if we were serious about the Order, we needed to go to training in his office on Fridays starting a little before Halloween. The first meeting went…well…I might as well just tell you…"

~Nineteen Years Earlier~

"I can't bloody believe you bloody told him!" Sirius seethed.

Ursula glared fiercely at her twin, "It's not like he didn't know about the Order at all! He was still planning on joining!"

"The letter said not to tell anyone! Is that so difficult to understand!?"

"He's coming with us!"

"I say he doesn't!"

"I say he does!"

"Don't I get a say in this?" Ben asked as he sat on the window ledge in an empty corridor next to James as they watched the Black twins fight it out.

Both turned at the same moment and with the same furious expression on each their faces, shouted, "No!" before turning back to telling at each other.

"Eh, you tried mate." James consoled him mockingly. James then turned back to watch the argument unfold, occasionally popping popcorn (a muggle treat Elyse had gotten him hooked on two summers ago) into his mouth.

Ben just stared at him in shock, "You aren't going to try to stop this?"

"Nope," he said popping the 'p' obnoxiously.

"Why not?" Ben demanded.

James shrugged, "You forget—they lived in my house this summer. This happened every other day."

"I feel sorry for you then. How long do these rows usually take?"

"Eh, from where they are now, I guess they only have a couple minutes left. Sirius will say something that undermines Ursula's independence, Ursula'll shout at him that she's the older sibling, Sirius says that doesn't matter because he's the bloke in the situation and he should be the one making decisions, Ursula then throws something at Sirius and defends her decision," James said nonchalantly.

Ben watched in amazement as it played out exactly as James had called it.

Ursula stalked over to Ben, roughly grabbed his hand, and stormed off down the hall towards Dumbledore's office. "We're going to be late." She barked at the other two over her shoulder.

Laughing, James shoved Sirius's shoulder, "Did you think you had a chance of winning that argument?"

"Shut it Prongs."

Once they got past the entrance (he had given them the password, lollipop, in his letter) they climbed the rounding staircase. Sirius felt the pounding in his chest. He wasn't nervous. Hell no. He was Sirius Bloody Black. He wasn't scared of fighting Death Eaters and giving them a piece of his mind. Nah, he didn't even bat an eyelash at that. Looking ahead of him, he saw the reason why his heart was uncomfortably pounding away at his sternum. Ursula was walking up the stairs, speaking to Ben about some plans they were making for Hogsmeade or something like that. He didn't care. He cared that she was here.

He knew that she could take care of herself but this was Ursula. She was the one that he had to look out for. He knew that he had no chance at the "normal" life; a wife, a house, maybe a cat or owl, and some little ankle biters running around. No, that wasn't his future. But he would be damned if it wasn't Ursula's.

That was the very real possibility. She had Ben had now been going strong for two years. Sirius would bet his motorbike that Ben would propose to her before they were twenty. And even though he never thought he would be thinking this, he realized that he was okay with that idea. The idea of his sister marrying someone else didn't immediately send him into a panic on how to stop it. Instead…he almost wanted it to happen.

"Ah…James, Sirius, Ursula, you arrived on time," Dumbledore greeted them. Sirius hadn't even realized they reached the top of the stairs. When Ben walked in behind the trio, the Headmaster's eyes widened the slightest bit, "And Benjamin. I was not aware you would be attending – or that you were even aware of this meeting."

Ben shrugged and subconsciously walked next to Ursula, "I'm surprised I wasn't informed considering I have expressed interest in fighting for the Order multiple times on multiple occasions."

"Aw hell no!" A voice exclaimed from the large group of individuals who were already part of the Order and a few other students who had already shown up. Gideon Prewitt alternately glared at the Headmaster and his almost brother-in-law. "Albus, you told me that Ben would stay oyt of this! It's bad enough we have Annie's protégée joining up," he gestured at Ursula.

"I said that I would keep him out as long as possible," Dumbledore calmly told the unusually enraged jokester.

"It appears it is out of my control now."

"No, I swore to my dead fiancée, the mother of my unborn son," Gideon hissed venomously, "that I would keep her little brother out of this if something happened to her."

"Well something did happen to her," Ben cut in, his voice cool, calm, and collected though there was rage in his eyes. "She died. She died a week before she gave birth to my nephew and namesake because no one in this bloody organization thought she might be the ideal target the day war was declared. So forgive me for wanting to fight to make sure that doesn't happen to another family! Because you know what? I've found my Annie, Gideon and just like you, I won't let her fight alone so let me train with them, damnit, or send me out there in two years with a target on my back and no defense. Your choice. No, no it's not," he immediately corrected himself. "It's my choice and I am staying right here."

Everyone had gone silent at Ben's rant, unsure if Gideon would respond. To everyone's moderate surprise, he simply nodded once.

Dumbledore clapped his hands together and shuffled o the middle of the room. "Thank you Benjamin for that segue into the first order of business. If everyone would gather around. Take a moment to think about why they are here. This isn't a revenge mission; there has to be something deeper in you. Think about it. Why are you here to fight and possibly die? Your belief is your life line, the reason you are fighting so please, take this serious. If you would like to share, please share your name and year as well."

Sirius recognized the girl that spoke first. She was the current Headgirl and was a proud Hufflepuff. "My name is Katie Alexander and I'm here because when I believe that there is no such thing as an inferior human being and what Lord Voldemort is doing disgusts me. I cannot just sit back."

A tall willowy girl stepped forward next. Her school robes bore the Ravenclaw badge, "My name is Alora Baggins and I am in Seventh year. I'm fighting because they have no right to decide who deserves to live simply because someone is born to a muggle parents."

The Headboy, Adam Kingsley, also from Ravenclaw, said, "I want to not live in fear because I'm a muggleborn."

A sixth year Hufflepuff named Jesse Cohen said it was because his adopted sister was a muggleborn witch and he would protect her with his dying breath to keep her safe. Sirius felt his respect for his yearmate. They had never spoken much before but if Jesse thought like that, he was a good man in Sirius's books.

Ursula spoke next, "I'm fighting to stop my family from causing any more damage and to prove a name doesn't determine anything about an individual witch or wizard."

There was a beat of silence as James and Sirius glanced at each other, wondering who would speak first. James nodded slightly and said, "I'm here because I want to be the last pureblooded Potter. This pureblood crap ends with me. My wife will be muggleborn; my children halfblood. And to make sure that happens, I'm sure as hell going to fight for it."

~Back to Grimmauld Place~

"James really said that?" Remus asked in awe.

Sirius laughed sadly and nodded, "I know! I can't believe it and I was the best man at the wedding."

"Who would have thought? Back then…I couldn't fathom them being together."

"They were supposed to last forever." Sirius said morosely as he came across their wedding picture.

Remus nodded sadly when he too caught sight of the picture, "They got each other's forever."

"They should have been here for Harry. The poor boy…and I don't even want to mention Lysie…" Sirius trailed off thinking of the familiar face and what she had lost along with them.

"Speaking of Elyse…Lucky," Remus corrected himself when Sirius glared at him, "the Order thing must have been right around the time when everyone found out about her ability."

Sirius, either pretending not to hear the answer or choosing not to answer it, went back to flipping through the pictures. He stopped when he saw one of James soaring over the stands of the Quidditch pitch their sixth year, with Ursula on his right.

"Ever wonder what happened to his broom?" Sirius asked.

Remus shrugged, "After everything that happened…I wasn't…I couldn't…A lot of things got thrown away or taken by other people before I could claim anything."

"Damn, he wanted Harry to get that. What about his watch?"

"Buried with him."

"Captain's badge?"

"Torn to shreds in the blast."

"Damn, that was one of his most cherished things. He wore that badge for what? Three? Four years? Quidditch was his life."

"Yeah, until he found something to give his life for."

"We all found something." Sirius murmured as he looked more intently at the Quidditch portrait. "This was the dream team, they were unstoppable."

Remus chuckled as he recalled a memory, "Everyone knew from their first game that the season was done."

Sirius cracked a smile as well, "That was a wonderful day? Remember how cankerous you were?"

~19 Years Earlier~

"Sirius! Move! I would actually like to sit before the game starts!" Remus shouted from behind his friend, trying to fighting against the large crowd in the stands.

In response, Sirius just laughed and soldiered on through the crowd, "Aw, come on Moony! Get excited! It's officially Quidditch season!"

"Why are you so happy about Quidditch when you were kicked off the team?" Peter asked.

The glare from Sirius was enough to silence Peter. Sirius then spun around, his open coat swirling around him dramatically, "I get to see Gryffindor kick Slytherin's arse. It's a beautiful feeling."

"Please, for the love of all things good and magical, please move," Remus begged.

"Kill joy," Sirius grumbled but complied with Remus's request. "Evans said that she would save us seats. Look for an angry ginger and you'll find our seats."

"I heard that Black," Lily said as she showed up behind Sirius. The said boy jumped nearly a foot in the air, startled by her sudden appearance. Lily crossed her arms and glared at him, tapping her foot impatiently while Remus watched with amusement as Sirius fidgeted under Lily's glare.

"This won't reflect badly on James in any way, right? Because I'm just the loudmouth friend who should be, and thinking about it actually is, ignored most of the time because words just spew from my mouth and I have no idea what the hell I am saying."

Lily couldn't help but laugh at Sirius's antics before rolling her eyes, "Come on up. Marlene got here three hours ago with Mary to get the best seats."

The three boys followed Lily towards the few box seats that students were allotted right in the middle of the field.

"Midfield, front row, this is going to brilliant!" Sirius cheered as he sat down and kicked his feet up on the ledge.

"You know, you boys cut it close." Mary said as she leaned over to talk to them. "The game starts in five minutes."

Remus grumbled under his breath, something along the lines of Sirius taking too long in the shower.

"What team are they playing?" Peter asked, looking around nervously when he looked across the stadium to see a sea of green. He slouched down in his seat to try to avoid being seen.

Sirius clapped him on the shoulder painfully, "Don't be such a wuss, Wormy! The Slytherins can't do anything here to us with all the professors!" he shouted over the noise the crowd was already making.

It seemed like every person from their respectful house came out to watch the game. Though Hufflepuff had miraculously pulled out a win last year, there were many who knew that Slytherin would be a serious contender for Gryffindor. Considering the amount of injuries and accident that had befallen the red and gold team last year, no one was really sure how good of a team they were.

"WHO'S READY FOR SOME QUIDDITCH!?" Eoin Prendergast, the Quidditch announcer for the past two years, shouted over the stands with his magically enhanced voice for the game. Eoin was a good guy in Sirius's books; he was from Ravenclaw and as clever as hell. He could talk someone in a circle and get them to disagree with themselves all while he was eating his morning breakfast. But if someone mentioned Quidditch in front of him, Merlin, there was no stopping the bloke. The only other person that could best him in Quidditch terminology and strategy was James. The only thing that kept him from playing was the fact that due to a muggle car accident when he was six, he was paralyzed from the waist down. The school had been accommodating, charming the stairs to turn into ramps just underneath his chair so that someone could walk up the stairs next to him. He never let his disability hold him back and he never complained which Sirius respected a great deal.

The crowds roared. As Eoin announced the usual spiel about good sportsmanship and the history of the game, Sirius turned to beam at his friends surrounding him, "This is going to be brilliant!"

Then the first team flew out of their gate. The Slytherin team flew out into the sky in formation, their face stoic looking like they weren't having fun at all. Any and all cheering from the Slytherin section was drowned out by the Gryffindor's boos and jeering but it wasn't just them; the Hufflepuff house was also sitting with them.

That, Remus had not been expecting. This morning, the Hufflepuff captain Gillian Andrews walked up to James and told him that her entire House (including the Quidditch team) would be coming out to support the Gryffindors. She explained that after what happened last year with so many injuries and issues, their resilience and loyalty had impressed those in Hufflepuff and in return, unless they were playing each other, the entire house would treat Gryffindor games just like they would their own games. It was impressive. The Hufflepuffs had turned out in their gold gear and made the stands into a perfectly mixed version of Gryffindor's colors. It had touched James and he said that he would do what he could to return the favor. Remus had a feeling that their support of each other went deeper than just Quidditch games.

The War had severed all and any hope that the Gryffindor and Slytherin Houses would ever get along. With Slytherin clearly supporting the work of Lord Voldemort and his beliefs and Gryffindor definitely not, the other two houses had been left to choose which side they wanted to associate with. For the last year, Ravenclaw had declared themselves Switzerland; they would deal with both Houses and there was to be no fighting within. So with Gillian coming up to James and shaking his hand once they were done talking in the middle of the Great Hall, it was as if she had allied herself, and by extension her House, on their side.

"AND NOW FOR GRYFFINDOR!"

The only way to describe the noise that followed that declaration was deafening. Half the stadium exploded into cheers as the two beaters flew out first.

"WE'VE GOT RJ KING AND CHRISTOPHER WOOD RETURNING AS BEATERS!"

The pair threw their bats into the air, flew up in a circle, looping around each other, before catching each other's bat before they took the traditional laps around the field until their team joined them.

Ben and Elyse flew out next, Eoin announcing their names. Ben quickly caught up to the beaters and fell in between them while Elyse flew slightly above them.

"CHASERS MOIRA MCGONAGALL, URSULA BLACK, AND CAPTAIN JAMES FRICKEN POTTER, THE ONLY BLOKE WHO KNOWS THIS GAME BETTER THAN ME!"

The three of them flew out in a triangle formation, James at the point with Ursula on his right. If it was possible, the crowds cheered louder when they appeared. They quickly caught up with the rest of the team and when they circled over their friends, Sirius saw something attached to James's broom, something he recognized.

"EVANS! Is that your hair thingy on James's broom?!" Sirius shouted at her.

Lily blushed a furious red. That was enough of an answer for him. That, and she was not wearing her usual ribbon thing she would tie around her hair in potions so nothing would fall into a cauldron.

The team landed on the field across from the Slytherin team. Ben and Ursula walked towards each other and held each other's hands for a moment, speaking of something that no one would hear. Ben looked around and even from the stands, Remus could see the sly smirk on his lips before Ben quickly grabbed the back of Ursula's neck and pulled her to him for a kiss. Ursula broke away and, laughing, said something to him that left him beaming.

"She really loves him doesn't she?" Remus asked Sirius.

Sirius was watching with a look on his face a cross between grim and happy. "She really does," he responded, his voice so soft Remus almost didn't catch it. "So much that she hasn't even realized it yet."

"He loves her too you know. He really truly does." Remus told him. "He said that he hasn't told her but he's in love with her."

"I know."

"And…?"

Sirius was literally saved by the bell as the whistle was blown and the two teams shot into the air.

The game was brilliant, just as Sirius predicted. They flew beautifully, almost like they knew what someone was doing across the field without even looking. RJ would hit a bludger and Chris would hit it at the exact angle to hit a Slytherin without even turning around to look at it. Ursula, James, and Moira flew seamlessly, the ball gracefully soaring between the trio. Ben seemed to be everywhere at once and like he had a sixth sense as to which hoop the ball was going towards. Elyse gracefully soared up and down, occasionally following the snitch, occasionally following a false trail to throw off Regulus.

When Gryffindor was up by over seven hundred points, James signaled Elyse and she caught the snitch within five minutes.

The catch was spectacular. She was flying at neck breaking speed towards the ground and pulled a perfectly executed Wronski Feint. As she pulled level with the ground, after grabbing the snitch, she daintily landed on her feet with her hand held up in triumph.

The stands emptied as they stormed the field. Sirius tried to find his sister first but when he saw her and Ben in a rather close embrace, he shuddered and instead went on the search for his best friend. He found James pulling away from hugging Lily.

"Nice job Prongsie-boy!" Sirius cheered, pulling James into a headlock and giving him a noogie.

James laughed and shoved him off and grabbed his glasses from Sirius's hand. Since James couldn't fly with his glasses (they were prone to break and they would often fly off his face) he would wear goggles while playing and Sirius would bring his glasses to him as soon as possible.

"So what did you think Lily?" James asked excitedly.

His smile was infectious as Lily smiled widely, "That was amazing! This is the dream team, isn't it?"

"You think this is the dream team?!" He asked incredulously, the rush of winning still running rampant through his veins, "Wait until you see next year, Lily-flower!"

~Back to Grimmauld Place~

"Wait until you see next year," Sirius repeated, his voice hollow. "I forgot he said that."

"How could he have known?" Remus asked.

Sirius shook his head, "He couldn't've but Lucky probably saw something."

"Still, that year…they really were the dream team, weren't they?"

The sun had begun to move across the sky and it was now getting close to dinner time. The clanking and voices coming from the kitchen told them as much.

"That's the only place they exist now, a dream."

"Sirius…"

"Remus," Sirius said sharply. "I never got to say goodbye. I never got to openly grieve. The only time I went to the graves I had to go as a bloody dog. I never got what you did. I don't envy that you thought we were all dead and I had betrayed you all for twelve years but I did my time in Azkaban. I need…I need to see them…to speak to them one last time."

Remus placed his hand on his shoulder, "You know that is impossible. But you can help keep their memory alive. I know Harry has gone with few stories about his parents. And I know for a fact that Lysie hasn't heard any of the stores we just told. Talk to them.

"REMUS! SIRIUS! DINNER TIME!" Molly shouted from the kitchen.

Remus stood to leave but Sirius remained sitting with the photo album in his hands. "Sirius?"

"Go on without me Remus. Let me remember my friends."

Per his request, Remus nodded. His eyes sadly watched his friend for a minute before groaning as he stood up, his back creaking. He was only in his thirties but life had aged him prematurely. He was about to leave but then paused in the doorway, "You mentioned what everyone else said in the Order meeting but you never said why you were there. What did you say?"

"I said that I was there…I was there to preserve the future."

Remus seemed to understand the veiled meaning behind those words. "I'm sorry Sirius. I truly am."

"So am I."

With one last sad glance at his emancipated friend, Remus walked out of the room, his face

Once Sirius was sure that Remus was gone, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the aged mirror. He wiped the surface with the edge of his sleeve before pulling it close to his face, and whispered, "James?"

To no surprise, the mirror remained his reflection and didn't melt away into his best friend/brother's face.

He double checked the room and pulled the mirror closer to his face. In a voice that could only be described as meek and pitiful, he requested one name, his voice thick with tears that would never be shed.

"Ursula?"

Silence.